A number of display architectures, such as the liquid crystal display (LCD) architecture, make use of backlighting to facilitate display of images (still images or video) at a display device. In portable display devices, such as personal digital assistants, cellular phones, and notebook computers, powering the backlight subsystem can constitute a significant portion (e.g. 40%) of the total power consumption of the display device, thereby significantly impacting the total operating time for a given battery power capacity. Accordingly, various conventional techniques have been implemented in an effort to reduce the power consumed by backlighting. While these conventional techniques often reduce the power consumed by backlighting, it typically is at the expense of display fidelity. One conventional technique includes simply reducing the backlight intensity while increasing the LCD transmittance. This adaptation, however, detrimentally impacts the contrast of the displayed image. Another conventional technique, histogram stretching, attempts to salvage image contrast while reducing backlight intensity by setting thresholds at the brightest and darkest regions of the image. This process, however, leads to distortion in the pixels in both the brightest and darkest regions. Accordingly, an improved technique for enhancing image contrast so as to facilitate use of a lower backlight intensity level would be advantageous.